Master’s degree with a Sponsor in USA

One of my graduation pictures

For most of us it is not even a dream to go to USA for graduate school. Hoping for such an option and researching requirements for grad school is enough to discourage us. I had no goals or plans for such a thing until I came across a flyer one day. I was not even excited when I was called for an interview. Academics around me made it very clear that chances of getting Fulbright scholarship is very hard. The year I got in (for 2014-2016), there was 1000 applications and only 50 was chosen either for master’s, PhD or as a visiting scholar. Even though I had a huge support from Fulbright Turkey staff, applying to grad school was a very tough process. Taking TOEFL, GRE and applying for schools meanwhile I was a student on my 4^th year of my bachelors and trying to graduate with high GPA. One rule of Fulbright is, you are chosen for one specific date (like Fall 2014) and you have to get into a program or else you lose your chance to be a scholarship recipient. 

Somehow I managed to come over this challenging process. I still remember the day I received the e-mail stating that I got into Texas A&M University. I was taking my last exam at Celal Bayar University before moving to Poland for Erasmus. There couldn’t be better timing. It was a big relief wrapping up everything at once.

Even though getting acceptance was a big deal, it was start of heavy load of paper work. I remember spending days to complete separate paper work for c

ivil engineering department, for international student services and for Fulbright. I don’t want to sound like the I was the only to go through them but having a sponsor increases paper work because you need to prove many forms from them.

Getting into a program, completing paper work and starting classes was just first phase of this journey. No one told me that I would need to fill up forms at different stages of master’s degree. I also had to send a transcript at the end of each semester and full time enrollment at the beginning of each semester to Fulbright.

I received my master’s degree last year this time. It is not possible to fit 2 years of experience into 1 blog post so I decided to divide it post series. Even though it was the hardest 2 years of my life, I can’t deny how it increased my life standards.

If you have any questions on grad school in United States or in Texas A&M University, feel free to contact me.